The best part of spring is the dawn chorus, the early morning torrent of birdsong that occurs during the nesting season. This is the clearest sign of the most dramatic natural event encountered by many modern humans: the moment in the Earth’s annual cycle around the sun when warming temperatures and extended day length lead to a whole cascading series of events in the worlds of plants, insects and birds. Most of the time, it’s easy for us to ignore the subtle changes in bird behavior that mark the changing seasons. But the dawn chorus is not subtle — it strikes dozens of birds into simultaneously overflowing music.

The dawn chorus fits its name, with many birds first breaking into song with the first tentative light of the day, a brief peak of 30 minutes or so, and then a decline in singing as brightening conditions allow birds to get on with their practical business of the day. At this time of year, birds may begin singing around 6 a.m., with the dawn chorus arriving progressively earlier as sunrise moves earlier in the day until mid-June (although many species will have reduced their singing by that time). So get out as early as you can! You want to see stars shining and hear nothing except perhaps a great horned owl when you first step outside.

How does the singing begin? While there are a few potential competitors, one of the most widespread and characteristic early-morning singers is the American robin. Their winter flocks are now breaking up into territorial pairs and male robins are climbing to high perches in trees to carol their first-light music, a classic, lilting, up-and-down song sometimes rendered as “Cheer up! Cheerily! Cheerio!” Robin song has a notably vigorous, positive, encouraging tone and makes a fitting overture to all the music to come.

In typical residential neighborhoods, they may soon be joined by mockingbirds (which can also sing at night) with their famously variable medleys, that combine dozens or even hundreds of different song types. Some phrases are imitations of other birds or human-made sounds, while others are original compositions; in either case, the short phrase will be repeated some four to seven times before moving on to the next one. Mourning doves are another common participant, singing soft, drawn-out cooing in a pattern of “coo-AHHHH, cooo, cooo, cooo.” The pleasingly musical songs of titmice, house finches, goldfinches and Bewick’s wrens may all join in as well.

In local woodland habitats, or in yards with nearby native trees, additional species are likely to join the mix. Dark-eyed juncos are one of the most common woodland singers (a dry, even trill), along with their recently arrived soundalike, the orange-crowned warbler (a similar sounding trill that typically drops to a lower pitch in the middle). In denser woods, you may hear the relatively subtle song of the western flycatcher, a three-parted song that starts with a rising whistle before two short notes. Around brushier understories, spotted towhees are another common species, issuing simple but intense trills that are faster and more propulsive than those of juncos, sometimes likened to the twanging of a taut rubber band.

And once you’re outside listening to the morning’s songs, you’ll also be well-placed to notice the presence and morning activity of all the other birds, singing or not. Maybe you’ll hear the roughly song-equivalent territorial declarations of woodpeckers (rapid drumming on hollow trees) or raptors (such as the repeated, piercing calls of red-shouldered hawks). Maybe you’ll hear your local pair of California towhees, patrolling their territorial borders with piercing, smoke-detector chirps, or California scrub-jays, doing the same as they swoop along their borders with raucous squawks.

The benefits to listening to the early morning bird music are at least three. First, you become more aware of what’s out there — you learn what birds are present in your yard or nearby woods (try listening with the free Merlin Bird ID app to identify unknown singers). Second, you become more vividly aware of the nesting season, of the great dramatic cycle of the year. And third, you simply get to experience the astounding sensory experience of being surrounded by a dozen different singers, alien creatures of diverse sizes, shapes and colors, perched somewhere in the gloaming as they sing with all their might.

Jack Gedney’s On the Wing runs every other Monday. He is a co-owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Novato and author of “The Private Lives of Public Birds.” You can reach him at jack@natureinnovato.com.